The Top 5 Reasons To Add Live Chat To Your Website

Chris | Tuesday 28th November, 2017

You may have seen them, the Live Chat boxes in the bottom right hand corner of a website. It’s not a new feature, but it’s one that’s now a hot topic on the web. Here’s how a chat box can increase your customer engagement, save you money and help you sell more!

In an age of Netflix, Snapchat and Deliveroo, our thirst for instant gratification is ever increasing. I mean come on, who has the time to head to a contact page, take down a phone number and actually speak to someone?

Live Chat is convenient for your customers. Questions can be answered instantly, at any time of day and what’s more, in the Live Chat environment your customers will be more relaxed and potentially already in the sales process. So, let’s take a look at the 5 major plus points of introducing Live Chat onto your website.

1. See A Lift In Sales

Think of your Ecommerce website as a physical shop for a minute. If you had someone walking into your shop, saw them looking confused about a product or looking like they’re ready to leave, would you ask if you can help?

This is where a Live Chat comes into its own, interacting with a client at the right time on your website can be the difference between a customer making a purchase or abandoning their cart and heading to your competitor. Now you’re able to instantly answer those all-important questions and build your customers confidence in your company and individual products.

2. The Ultimate Customer Convenience

In a more connected world full of mobile devices and 4G, people want answers to their questions now. No longer are opening hours applicable in the online world.

With Live Chat service providers offering 24/7 cover, even if you’re not available to answer a question, your Live Chat provider can handle it for you. If the questions fall outside of their agreed answers, they can inform a customer that you’ll be in touch.

What’s more, wait times are shorter for customers. No more waiting on hold on the phone, or sending a question via email without knowing if it’s been seen. A customer can ask a question and continue their online activities until their question’s picked up.

3. Live Chat Can Reduce Your Outgoings

Employees are able to pick up multiple chats simultaneously compared to being able to handle one phone call at a time. With this multitasking, your customers wait times are reduced and your employees efficiency levels are increased. A win-win situation for everyone!

4. You Can Be There When Your Customers Need You

Throughout the online sales process customers will inevitably reach certain points where they need questions answering. It may be related to a product, it may be a payment issue or a delivery policy that needs explaining. Either way, by intelligent use of Live Chats these pain points can be answered directly improving the customer experience now and for the future.

No longer will you have to hunt through social media, call logs or forums to see pain point trends. And when you do see a trend, update your website content, FAQ’s or write a blog post to answer a question before it’s asked.

5. Helping You Get The Edge Over Your Competitors

So, you’ve beaten your competitors. Your branding, social marketing and SEO tactics have all paid off. Your customers are on your website and what better way of keeping the edge over your competitors than working with the top customer engagement tool many companies are yet to start using.

Whether you’re a product driven retailer or a service provider many of the biggest (and smallest) companies in your sector haven’t started using Live Chats. Get ahead of the game and be that company that’s at the forefront of customer support.

So there you have it, just some of the ways that live chat can assist in your sales process.

But be warned, make sure your customers aren’t over faced by contact methods. Live chat can happily sit alongside other methods of communication, but you need to give your customers a clear route to get questions answered.

Populating your website with phone numbers, email addresses, social media links and live chats will leave the customer confused, not knowing the best method of contact.

After all, too much choice can be a bad thing!

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